I don’t know where to post this kind of information that is surprising and fun. Here, engineers developed a “bio-monitoring system” for city water supply comprised of live clams and networked computers:
These biological systems are comprised of eight mussels with sensors hot-glued to their shells. They work together with a network of computers and have been given control over the city’s water supply. If the waters are clean, these mussels stay open and happy. But when water quality drops too low, they close off and shut the water supply of millions of people with them.
Then, since 2020 from Tumblr and Vimeo new project, and has somewhat transformed itself into a new way of doing things, becoming a kind of Evergreen on the Web.
It was from a film self-described as “a philosophical essay on the dependence of people from nature and the world around them.”
The important thing is: those clams aren’t the only protection. They’re not even the main part. This is still a “modern” water treatment system with sensors and detectors to keep everyone safe. Well, Clams are not human after all and our bodily needs are not the same as those of bivalves.
Definitely I would recommend Clamsplanning blog https://dantheclamman.blog/ from Dan Killam, an environmental scientist studying clams, climate, pollution, and conservation.
We, human people, need hope, art and poetry to nourish our thoughts and our expectations, all the more so in difficult and dark times.
I’ve been using this newsworthy case and Ecotox bioassay in practice as a case study for critical thinking approach in several workshops with students for years.
How information is created and circulated
What values/needs are involved in its circulation?
In what context does this happen?
How many tests / bioassays / biomonitoring systems are there for water?
What is ‘safe’ water for human use? What are these uses?
Toxicity, ecotoxicity, mutagenesis, genotoxicity, endocrine disruption, bacterial risks, viral risks: which tests take what into account and how? And what is not taken into account?
From this “Clams Control” story we can learn some things for Hack₂O like how to start and/or turn a fledgling hactivism initiative by using storytelling into stuff like J. Servin and RTMark did before
